Kodak Slide Scanner Works!!

Warning: Lots of photos and story telling involved.

If you remember last week I received my missing Kodak Slide Scanner but there were two issues that made it inoperable. The SD card would not lock in the slot which is needed to save the photos to that are converted from slides or negatives. Photos from that SD card are then transferred to your computer or TV screen, your choice. It also would not work once plugged into three different computers. I took it back for a refund, then ordered another one. I did not want to ship it to my house but to ship to the Best Buy store where I could pick it up. They texted two days earlier than planned for me to pick it up.

A Trip Through The Past

Once I had my new Samsung T5 External SSD as the source to my 557Gb photos library, I caught myself going through a lot of folders of photos. I wanted to see if everything transferred okay to the new drive. These folders are made by me, not the automatic ones by Apple. I will try to comment on each one, as my memory will get a workout.

Maggie only lived to 7 years of age. Once she was diagnosed with cancer, the disease spread faster each day. We had a little photo shoot at the house the last weekend she was home.

Dieting Is A Pain In The Ass

I can't call it a diet really. I have changed what I eat over the past 5 years, watch what I eat and log in to MyFitnessPal app EVERYTHING I eat. I don't cheat on that logging procedure no matter how hard I fall off the wagon into great junk food, pastries, chips,  ....  you know, all the good stuff.

I've tried Paleo, Mediterranean, Keto, Vegan, Lacto-Vegetarian, Blood-Type Diets along with my own by adding some 'personal modifications' to those just mentioned.

I was in utter shock when I found out that any blend of Ben&Jerry's ice cream wasn't included. That is almost UN-American !!!!!! I LOVE ice cream and especially Ben&Jerry's. Cost of it be damned!!!  Can't I even have two scoops a week?? I can't do a scoop for any length of time because the word "scoop" is not in my vocabulary ... "whole container" is right at the top, under The 10 Best Ways To Eat Ice Cream.

After years of staying away from the beef, except for a Nick's Stromboli once or twice per year, I was happy to see that the Paleo Diet was letting me have one of these. Now any smart dieter knows it would be best to cut this in half or into 4oz portions, or whichever is smaller ... but I don't recall anyone calling me a smart dieter. I have heard "where do you put all of that food you eat" but not 4oz portions.

The Paleo Diet and the Keto Diet told me I need to eat lots of FAT and PROTEIN .... buy bacon again, ham, pork, all that good tasting stuff and have it for breakfast too. I did and the amazing thing was, within days of eating the Paleo Diet way ALL of my heartburn disappeared ... within days!!!

I tried the Keto Diet last spring only for short period of time. When I couldn't have my normal portion of pasta, or even a tiny weeny bit of pasta I knew that my chances of being a "Ketonite" were slim and none. I would be up to 16 carbs in a 15-20 carb limit by two cups of coffee first thing in the morning because my brain requires two teaspoons of pure granulated sugar per 12oz cup of coffee. (Black coffee this morning) See what I mean .... the Keto Diet and I weren't friends for very long.

Now one thing it did do, it helped me measure out my portions with a measuring cup and this 1cup of dried pasta is now my new portion size when I have pasta, which is few and far between. That chip on the edge of the plate took place when I left the house one night for a short 10 minute junk food trip.

Stella had the run of the house and was sound to sleep on the couch with Heidi when I left. While I was gone she must have smelled food on the plate sitting on the counter waiting to be washed. By the time I got home that plate and it's co-plate were on the floor ... the 2nd plate was smashed into 4 large broken pieces. I guess that was Stella's way of telling me JUNK FOOD IS NOT ALLOWED!!!!

I tried cooking in advance. What better way than to slow cook some homemade 15-bean soup with Cajun spices when colder weather hits. There again I have some issues. I admit it. I stand tall saying my first name and telling the world "I am a mess" when it comes to food portion control.

Just because you pat yourself on the back for a job well done after eating only 2 measured cups of this, that doesn't mean the game is over and you will be awarded. Hell no!!! NOT EVEN CLOSE !!!!

Those regular size soup bowls that come with any cheap set of dishes just doesn't hold a lot of bean soup, if you know what I mean. So I had a BIG choice .... a LOT of those 2 cup bowls or serve it in a bigger bowl and make fewer trips from the football games on tv to the kitchen. Guess who won? Not the game ... which size of bowl.

Within 48 hours of the first bean coming out of that crocpot .... that stuff was GONE !!!!

So I decided I need to start doing some aerobic exercise. What better way to get your pulse rate up than with games of Mahjong Deluxe while trying to get rid of those tiles as fast as possible. 160 games total and I even set a goal. Exercise and goals ... what could be better??? You can see I was already more than 7 seconds behind by the time I set my iPhone down, taking the picture.

My goal was to complete all the 160 games in under 3 minutes each. I admit I was out of shape when I started but like any kind of exercise you have to start out slow and build up your speed and endurance. It wasn't long before I cut my time in half, sometimes more. Currently I have only a few games left over 3 minutes completion time and I HAVEN'T LOST A DAMN POUND OF WEIGHT !!!!!

At the same time I read that for 'old' people hand and eye coordination is something that needs to be practiced. No better way than with your index finger on your laptop touchpad, moving fast to match two tiles and make them disappear. You would think if I sat at the table playing this game literally for hours ... the fat would just burn off of my body !!

I do from time to time get series about this dieting shit. I mean really serious. If you remember I am a man of extremes, all or nothing, $5 bets on the crap table or $,1000's at a time, drive the speed limit or fly way above it, feel good after an hour sleep and like crap after 10 hours of sleep .... on and on and on ... you get the idea. There is nothing in between in my life.

So this chart had me focusing on how I need to shop for groceries. The fat in Pale scared me with my family history of cardiac arrest, sometimes not having the best results. So I went Vegan for a while until I got tired of feeling lethargic all the time.

This gave me me too much heartburn, gone were the days of cold orange juice at 2am or 3am after waking up from a deep sleep, drinking it right out of the container ... just like milk. I LOVE orange juice but not quite as much as Ben&Jerry's ice cream.

I had flashbacks when I saw this on the shelf the other day at the local Super Walmart. Holy shit that stuff would change my personality drinking it some 30 some years ago. You talk about "WILD" ... damn. They labeled that whiskey right. I'll only say this, YES me and my three friends DID go to court that year when Whidbey Island WA has an unexpected 27" of snow in 24 hours. But .... we were young and dumb.

Whidbey Island might get a dusting of snow sometimes but no more than MAYBE an 1" at the most. I found this out in my research in 1984, when trying to decide if I wanted to move from the beach in Carlsbad CA, to the rock beaches of Oak Harbor, WA.

So how do you end up talking to a judge in a court of law?? With a lawyer, hired by you? Well what started off as a good Samaritan act in the neighborhood ... by blowing snow off sidewalks with high speed snowmobiles, turned into large quantities of Wild Turkey being consumed because it was cold out there in that freezing weather ... we needed something to warm up.

Of course you always come up with the best ideas when you are drinking ... especially that stuff in the picture. Oh yes .... we were about to become famous ... really famous.

Not only did we have smaller bottles of this under our North Face down parkas but we were also riding these snowmobiles all over Island County back roads, and AT TIMES crossing the major north south highway ... Hwy 20. I admit there were times that we might have been airborne with the snowmobile. It did feel like we were flying a few times.

Things were going pretty good. We were safe, drunk, cold and happy. Things turned exciting really quick. I mean really really quick ... just about the time all four of us on four different snowmobiles FLEW by this white car ... If I wasn't going so fast I might have recognized him as a Oak Harbor Police car .... he put on those bright flashing red and blue lights you hear other people talking about sometimes ... sometimes.

When you are doing over 70mph on those snow machines you tend to get way ahead of the chasing police car. WAY AHEAD .... but we were considerate and knew we were busted. All four of us stopped, turned our machines off, put the Turkey away and waited .... and waited ... while watching these red and blue lights along with headlights slide all over the highway from side to side ... to catch up to us.

He did thank us for waiting for him, asked us what brand name of machine we were riding. (We did not know that was for ticket purposes) That was as far as his amusement went. In the end it was an even trade off ... we keep the machines to ride back home (escorted) in trade for a ticket for speeding .... and numerous other violations.

All of us paid for that decision .... I am not sure with around 30 years of inflation, what our fines, court costs and lawyer fees would be in today's money. I do remember clearly eating a LOT of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after that for a LONG TIME. Not just for lunch either.

There are times I fall off the wagon hard.  It's 11:30pm and the west coast baseball games are just starting on tv. What better time than to run down to the local mini-mart for a 20oz coke, a small bag of chips and all that other junk food not seen in the range of the camera? Believe me, there is A LOT not in that picture. :) This is never good for diet discipline.

No more stuff like this for dinner ... all of that ... not allowed.

No more pizza at DeAngelo's Pizza in Bloomington.

No more pizza at Mother Bear's in Bloomington. Even the smaller size of pizza, and fewer slices still puts on the pounds fast as well as sending your carbs goal for the day out of this world.

No more opening this, just pouring it over ice in my blender and dreaming of the times on the beaches at Rosarito Beach south of Tijuna at the Rosarito Beach Hotel in the late 1970's. Great times, great memories, great people.

Due to allergic reactions I rarely have a beer anymore. I think I have one or two beers a year when friends fly in to break bread at a local eating establishment.

While I was using this last year to change the oil in my Z4 I had a splendid idea ... but I'm not an engineer. What if .... I could slide that rubber tube down my throat into the internal fat surrounding my stomach ....  then pumping that pump with the black handle to build up the pressure needed for extraction .... hmmmm, I'll have to put more thought into that. That would be much faster than any stupid diet. Don't you think?

It does say on the label it is "Multi-Purpose" .... Vacuum Pump ... oil from an engine or fat surrounding my stomach, what's the difference?

I stare at the bottom of my feet sometimes, with this chart in hand but I have no idea where my answer is for losing weight. I am stuck at 202 unless I eat too much pasta .... then 206 ... but that is better than the 214 in May 2018 ... or the 230 in November 2010. I've set my calorie intake at 1,500 per day. Most of the time I am within that range. My resting pulse is 48-52 bpm, top number of my blood pressure reading is never over 110.

I'm not that stupid though. I know the answer. I know the correct portion size I should have, the discipline it takes, and I know that I can't lose weight playing hours of Mahjong.

I need to ride this.

Or walk, jog or ride my mountain bike around the outside edge of this field.

If I rode the bikes, jogged or walked on a daily basis around that field, stayed away from pizza and pasta ...

COULD I HAVE JUST ONE OF THESE !!!!!

It Felt Like Whidbey Island

I am not sure why but for some reason on this morning's walk it felt exactly like a time on a Saturday or Sunday morning where my two basset hounds and I would take a walk while living on Whidbey Island, WA.

They were Harry and Arthur. Since we had only room to walk along the side of a country road and streets leading to the neighbors nearby, both had to be leashed and that 'splitter' someone invented was valuable in the early 1990's, as I could walk both with one leash side by side.

Harry was my first basset hound ever and was bought as a puppy in 1987. Arthur is dressed in the tri-color while Harry was mostly white. That's Arthur in front.

Harry was a 'wanderer' at all hours of the day or night and continued to be after we moved into the house I live in now, in southern Indiana. How he ever survived to live 13 years is beyond my imagination.

They were not from the same litter and were a couple of years apart but got a long great as two males. They never had a fight over food or a favorite bone.

This place was one of two of the best places I had ever rented. I rented a small apartment on the first floor of a waterfront house. The porch ran the full length of the house and we would walk out on that small spit that is shown in the water. If I remember correctly that is Hope Island straight ahead. Deception Pass Bridge would be around the corner to the left ... a few miles down.

Back here in 'the tropics' this morning the weather was perfect for a walk. After yesterday's surprise visit by people and their dog, I was wondering what the hounds would do once they picked up that 12 hour scent. Would they go back into the wooded area or take off for the neighbors house?

As you will see from the progression of the pictures, they did neither. Yet it was a day where both of them decided to hang back as I continued my walk. Not a word was said today, I let them do whatever they wanted while I walked the path which I am told can be seen on Google Earth.

All of these pictures show them closer to me than they really are. I could tell by this time and very early into the morning walk, that neither hound was going to keep up with me.

I decided as I walked further away I would take some pictures in hopes of showing a progression to where you could tell just how far they were falling behind.

At this point in time I am about to veer right around the first corner of the wooded area. I took one last close up of Sadie before I moved out of view.

Stella is far back in the distance and just as I was about to stop and turn from taking pictures my viewer picked up Stella starting to run to catch up.

Catching her in the middle of a trot shows her nonchalant attitude very well. It's what makes her a great bloodhound with a funny personality.

Evidently Sadie had found some very valuable protein to add to their diets. It took a while for either of them to move from that spot. In fact by the time Sadie did I was already walking along the back edge of the field.

I think Sadie caught the same scent directly on our path as she did yesterday. Only this time I am way in front of her.

I've seen this next picture many times before, where there is no sign of Stella. Today I was a little concerned that she might have picked up the scent of the other dog from yesterday and had headed into the woods in the opposite direction we were walking.

In the meantime Sadie was up along the fence line along the back edge of the field. Stella was nowhere in view.

About the time I had conceded that I might have to go into the woods on the way back to find Stella or at least call her ... she came running around the corner. Sadie flew by me at a full out sprint to see who that 'strange' hound was up ahead. As usual she touched noses to make sure Stella was okay.

I am not sure what got their attention here, I didn't hear any gun shots nor see anything moving on the horizon. I was told yesterday while talking to the neighbor we had just missed about 10-15 deer grazing in the cornfield behind the field we walk in. They are looking in that direction.

Stella decided since she has 'checked in' with me, that she is going back to that spot that took up most of her time on the walk this morning.

She beat Sadie to that spot but it wasn't long before both of them were there munching away ... I kept walking toward home, not wanting to see or know what it was they liked so much.

Sadie was sure there must be something else she could find before we ended the walk to go back inside.

It does not feel like a Friday as if any day feels like the day it is named when retired. They all kind of blend in together when you have every day off and a free schedule for you to decided what you want to do.

With today 'officially' starting Christmas Weekend for those that do work, traffic today is lighter than an early Sunday morning. In fact it's almost nonexistent.

I am going to continue going from room to room, doing a thorough cleaning and putting away anything that might be out of place. I might even rearrange some furniture but not sure of that yet. It might be time to downsize again since I have basically filled up about every available spot for storage.

Birds are chirping outside while I write this ... do they think its Spring already?

I was looking through an old file cabinet this morning. A drawer I had not opened in a very long time. Inside were labeled zip lock bags of all the computer software disc that were for specific computers I had owned in the past. It was funny to see the progression of backup discs.

From the 5-1/2" floppy disk to the "huge" Zip Drives with almost 100Mb of storage space. What really put this all back into time were the 3 different bags labeled --

• Windows 95
• Windows WP Professional
• Gateway S200 XL

Almost all of the Zip drives were labeled as they were designed to be used ... as backups. I am hoping somewhere in my 'electronics' drawer I will find a Zip Drive that can read these disc because a few of them are full of old pictures where I have no idea what might be on them. Hopefully I'll find some old puppy pictures of Sadie's first two years ... one's I accidentally deleted when reformatting a hard drive.

I know you only need to keep records of income taxes 7 years but due to my paranoid nature of the IRS, I have copies of all of my income taxes filed back to 1991, filed in sequence. This old file cabinet has a treasure chest full of old information.

Talking about Harry and Arthur to start this blog, had me searching through some picture albums so I could scan some. We were living on the water, on North Whidbey Island just around the corner from the Deception Pass.

I am going to have to stay focused on my cleaning and sorting of rooms with a little downsizing included before I set at the computer and scan hundreds of 4x6 pictures into digital copies. It will be a long slow process but one that I have been wanting to do for quite a while.

I may have misspoke yesterday about Heidi's weight. While giving her a good pet and massage last night It DID feel that she had gained some weight since I was feeling a lot less bone and more 'meat' on her sides and back. She also has hair continuing to grow on her paws ... along with fresh spots where she has licked so much the new hair is gone.

She has practically traded her Mexican blankets for my Marmot sleeping bag this winter but it will be a hard fought battle and this time she might not win.

Well I need to get off here and start the continuous cleaning ... at least get all of this finished before the better college football bowl games start. I have not had much interest in watching the games so far. Too many bowl games to generate money for the host city but also a lot of empty seats.

Can you say the college football bowl schedule has become too saturated?

It's close but not quite lunch time kibble for the hounds -- Stella just walked into the computer room to let me know I have about 30 minutes before she starts howling to be fed.

The hounds are having another great day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.